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Mrs Whiggins

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I'd just like to point out that neither myself nor any of my fellow nurses, fellow advanced nurse practitioners, and other healthcare providers ever swore an oath that we would lay down our lives for

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Welp, it finally happened. I snapped in public today. I went into work for a bit this morning because I’m trying to figure out the safest way to host physicians we are recruiting given our CV-19 sit

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I don't really know what to say anymore tbh. What happened last night is hard to put into words for anyone who hasn't worked in a hospital healthcare setting. Just unreal. Everyone is getting fucked.

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Degenerate Gardner

Degenerate Gardner 4085

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56 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

Put me in the camp that thinks the combo of schools restarting and Labor Day gatherings is going to make for another dumpster fire in late September/Early October.  We just can't help ourselves from continually touching the stove to see if it's still hot. 

Shit man, we can't even agree there's a stove.

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elguapo

elguapo 4586

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6 minutes ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

Shit man, we can't even agree there's a stove.

Of course there's a stove, but it's not even fucking hot that's just what the media wants you to believe. And don't you dare fucking tell me to put use a pot holder if I'm going to touch it, I can touch the stove however I want that's my god given constitutional right and so what if I leave a piece of paper on the stove and burn the whole fucking house down at least the libtards will cry about it.

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Sawbonz

Sawbonz 27548

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30 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

These students and teachers testing positive are bringing the virus to the schools.  Gwinnett County GA schools had 260 teachers test positive on day one.  They didn't catch it there -- they probably spread it, though.

image.gif.fda1b35677757de3834c35aa9554fb98.gif

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Planet Houston

Planet Houston 4930

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This blast was apparently sent out by a parent in West University, where a cadre of parents are protesting schools starting online.  Please feel free to give your unabashed opinions.

 

July 2020 - Thoughts and Questions on Physical School Reopening in Houston

 Highlights

 ·  Adults need to get educated on the recommendations published by trusted organizations, particularly AAP and CDC, regarding physical school reopening 

o Multiple resources provided below

·  Parents must ask key questions regarding HISD, city and county-level decision-making on physical school reopening

o Key questions to ask below

·  Opinions and recommendations among Parents will inevitably vary. Regardless, Parents must be proactive in educating themselves and give their children a voice.

o Take action: email your local leaders to demand accountability and transparency  – email addresses and suggested message below 

 Situation Overview

 We sit here, nearing the end of July, seemingly deeper into the COVID “fog of war” than we were two months ago.  Unfortunately, there appears to be an unacceptable level of ignorance regarding what we do and do not know about COVID.  News is dominated by political sniping and anecdotal stories rather than facts in context.  

 This is particularly true in the context of the school reopening debate.  By now you hopefully have heard about the various reports and studies recommending that schools physically reopen this fall.  Below are links to a few of these reports, issued by organizations such as the American Association of Pediatrics, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and, most recently, the CDC.    (Links to each report: here, here and here).

 To be very clear, these reports are not political documents.  They provide objective / data-driven recommendations on the policies and procedures that schools should follow in order to physically reopen in the fall.  Importantly, they are very clear that each school district must adapt to its particular situation i.e. what is the COVID situation in that particular community.  There is no one size fits all solution across the country.     

 However, there is an overarching philosophy that motivates the conclusion in these reports.  It is very simple yet continuously overlooked amidst the political sniping and finger pointing - the negative consequences of not physically reopening outweigh the risks associated with COVID.

 It is worth considering how these organizations arrived at similar conclusions.  Did they ignore the fact that we are in the midst of global pandemic?  Are they indifferent toward the safety of teachers, staff and administrators?  Do they not understand the dangers associated with COVID? Surely not.

 In fact, they have examined these risks very closely and concluded that measures can be taken to minimize the risk to students, teachers and staff.  Consider that closely -  the analysis is realistically focused on minimizing, not eliminating, the risk of spreading COVID.  Of course, the zero-risk approach is for everyone to stay home until we have a vaccine or the virus simply goes away.  Measures such as masks and face shields, with the primary focus on protecting adults.    

 So what about the negative consequences of not physically reopening?  The CDC report summarizes it well:  “At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant.  Further, the lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children and those living with disabilities.  These students are far less likely to have access to private instruction and care and far more likely to rely on key school-supported resources like food programs, special education services, counseling, and after-school programs to meet basic developmental needs.”

 Questions for Local Leaders

 Despite the above, many school districts - including HISD and others in Houston - have already delayed physical reopening until at least October 19th.  On Friday, July 24th, County Judge Hidalgo ordered all non-religious public schools (i.e. non-HISD public schools within Harris County, like Spring Branch ISD) to delay physical reopening until at least September 7th.  The rationale is that the local COVID situation is too severe to allow schools to physically reopen.  

 Recognizing that decisions have already been made (i.e. I am not here to litigate what has already been decided, even if I do not agree with it), I am willing to stipulate that our local leaders (Mayor Turner, County Judge Hidalgo, members of school Boards, et al): 

·  have read or been briefed extensively on the aforementioned reports;  

·  understand that this is not a one-sided equation (i.e. that the costs of not physically reopening are real; 

·  have weighed the costs of physically reopening and believe they outweigh the benefits; and  

·  are willing to stand behind a transparent discussion of this balancing act i.e. what are the long-term educational, social and economic impacts of delayed reopening? 

 Parents must then ask the following questions:

 1.    What conditions must we see in Houston / Harris County to allow schools to physically reopen?

a.    Are there specific metrics being used to make decisions? 

b.    What source are we relying on?

c.     Are all school boards using the same metrics?  

d.    Are school boards using the same metrics as city and county leaders?

2.    Does either the Mayor and/or the County Judge have a forecast of when these metrics will be met?  

 .              Based on current testing trends in Houston, is October 19th even a realistic date for a physical reopening?  

a.            Based on current trends, when will local COVID conditions meet the required metrics referenced in 1a?

3.    Is HISD going to maintain an “all or nothing” approach to physical reopening?  

 .         Why not create a contingency plan that allows K-4 grades to physically reopen this fall?  Every report concludes that physical reopening should prioritize younger children, namely K - 4th grade.  

4.    Will HISD consider the potential to prioritize at-risk students as the first to return to school?  

 Conclusion 

 Every parent should be keenly focused on how and when schools are physically re-opened, regardless of whether or not your children attend public schools.  School districts are setting the tone for the entire education system in our area, which has implications for so many facets of life.  Decisions are being made and parents need to get in the game by requiring accountability and transparency from our local leaders.  

 Finally, a few general qualifiers to avoid the inevitable reflexive politicized talking points.  My intent is not to play politics or create another flash point.  Everyone wants to go “back to normal” - parents, students, teachers, administrator.  I do not for a second think that anyone in the education system is trying to avoid a physical reopening.  Teachers chose the profession because they love it.  And we all love our teachers.

 Again, I think we have to assume our leaders are making decisions in good faith, with a full understanding of the relevant facts.  However, true leadership requires transparency and accountability,  allowing all stakeholders to have a voice.  Politicians and school boards are entrusted with their platform and authority.  On this critical decision, parents and children should also have that platform.  

 I believe these are the questions that must be asked before we find ourselves in a series of recurring delays until 2021, if not longer.  Every parent should have a sense of urgency on this topic.  

 TAKE ACTION

 Write emails to our local leaders.  Email addresses and suggested text are below - or simply forward this email to local leaders.  They need to hear from voters.  For ease I have provided email addresses for Mayor Turner, County Judge Hidalgo and all of the HISD Trustees.

 ·  Email Addresses 

Mayor Turner and County Judge Hidalgo

judge.hidalgo@cjo.hctx.net, sylvester.turner@houstontx.gov

HISD Trustee Emails

Sue.Deigaard@houstonisd.org, wadams2@houstonisd.org, Judith.Cruz@houstonisd.org, Patricia.Allen2@houstonisd.org, Daniela.Hernandez@houstonisd.org, Elizabeth.Santos@houstonisd.org, Kathy.BluefordDaniels@houstonisd.org, Holly.flynnvilaseca@houstonisd.org, Anne.Sung@houstonisd.org 

 ·  Suggested text for email to local leaders  

 We Demand Accountability and Transparency - Questions Regarding Physical School Reopening

 Mayor Turner, County Judge Hidalgo and HISD Trustees,

 I respectfully ask that you address the following questions in regards to school reopening.  We demand accountability and transparency on decisions being made throughout our local government.

 Thank you,

[INSERT NAME] 

 1.    What conditions must we see in Houston/Harris County to allow schools to physically reopen?

a.            Are there specific metrics being used to make decisions? 

b.            What source are we relying on?

c.             Are all school boards using the same metrics?  

d.            Are school boards using the same metrics as city and county leaders?

2.    Does either the Mayor and/or the County Judge have a forecast of when these metrics will be met?  

 .              Based on current testing trends in Houston, is October 19th even a realistic date for a physically reopening?  

3.    Is HISD going to maintain an “all or nothing” approach to physical reopening?  

 .              Every report concludes that physical reopening should prioritize younger children, namely K - 4th grade.  Why not create a contingency plan that allows K-4 grades to physically reopen this fall?  

4.    Will HISD consider the potential to prioritize at-risk students as the first to return to school? 


Key Resources (Not Comprehensive!)

 ·  School Reopening 

o American Association of Pediatrics: COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Guidance for School Re-entry

o National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Schools Should Prioritize Reopening in Fall 2020, Especially for Grades K-5, While Weighing Risks and Benefits

o CDC: The Importance of Reopening America’s Schools this Fall

o The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity: Reopening America’s Schools and Colleges During COVID-19

 ·  COVID Stats

o Texas Daily Stats: Texas HHS

o Houston Daily Testing and Capacity Stats: TMC Daily COVID Stats

o Stats on COVID Impact by Age: CDC

 ·  Other Articles / Resources 

o What Parents Can Learn From Child Care Centers That Stayed Open During Lockdowns

o Study: Household COVID-19 infection rarely starts with children

§ “Counterpoint” study: Older Children Spread the Coronavirus Just as Much as Adults, Large Study Finds 

o No known case of teacher catching coronavirus from pupils, says scientist 

Edited by Planet Houston
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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45907

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I'd like to learn more about the alleged harm inflicted on our youth by schools going to online learning.  We see the claims in the Houston parent's flyer above:  

Quote

At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant. 

 

We are not talking about kids never returning to on-campus learning.  We are talking about a temporary shift to online education.  While I fully understand that this places a heavier burden on low-income families, and this MUST be addressed, I'd like to know what steps were taken to study these deleterious effects after, say, two months of virtual learning.  Admittedly, isolated learning is not summer vacation, but it would seem we should be looking for quantifiable data that shows irreparable harm after a short period of home schooling, not the effects of isolated isolated learning in perpetuity.  I doubt it exists.

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

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The really long missive on school reopening in Houston should clarify that it is the American Academy of Pediatrics info (it is to where the link goes) so that people don't get them confused with the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. (frequently quoted by the anti-vaccine proponents). The latter is sometimes shortened to AAP, although if a parent were to type in AAP for a search, it would probably take them to the Academy site.

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32389

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1 hour ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

a couple of first graders are going to be dead in a few weeks and then things are going to get real.

If a class of kindergarten students can get slaughtered and only brows are furrowed, then I'm not sure what exactly to tell you.

And that was a kinder political climate than we have today.

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wildcat09

wildcat09 29352

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26 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

If a class of kindergarten students can get slaughtered and only brows are furrowed, then I'm not sure what exactly to tell you.

And that was a kinder political climate than we have today.

This. Sandy Hook didn't change anything. A few kids dying from covid sure as hell won't. The GOP is a death cult. Cultists don't just suddenly snap out of it.

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

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22 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

This. Sandy Hook didn't change anything. A few kids dying from covid sure as hell won't. The GOP is a death cult. Cultists don't just suddenly snap out of it.

Plus, they only listened to Alex Jones saying Sandy Hook was a hoax and not the part where he is an evil horrible human and the additional grief he piled upon the families and his losing the lawsuit for defamation. Death cult indeed.

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NameAlreadyInUse

NameAlreadyInUse 5112

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

a couple of first graders are going to be dead in a few weeks and then things are going to get real.

what makes you think that?  We didn't skip a beat when Sandy Hook happened, 20 kids dead, mostly (if not all) white.  Nothing changed.  We do not care to fix our problems any longer.  You just have to hope you have the ability to avoid having our problems kill you, because we aren't going to fix them, and no one is going to make us.  Yay us!!

Edited by NameAlreadyInUse
It pays to be behind. I see this point was already made multiple times.
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BradInATX

BradInATX 9208

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5 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

 

 

As if there was ever any doubt that the NBA player population as a whole is more disciplined and socially conscious than the hillbilly morons who tell them to shut up and dribble, call them thugs, and refuse to wear masks and be decent human beings. 

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henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29189

Posted
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did anyone see erin burnett interviewing peter navarro earlier today?  good lord.  couldn't find video to embed, but yeah, here it is.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/what-youre-saying-is-irresponsible-cnns-erin-burnett-gets-in-bonkers-hydroxychloroquine-fight-with-peter-navarro/

the link should tell you pretty much all you need to know, but it's worth a watch.

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Dnaguy

Dnaguy 11948

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

did anyone see erin burnett interviewing peter navarro earlier today?  good lord.  couldn't find video to embed, but yeah, here it is.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/what-youre-saying-is-irresponsible-cnns-erin-burnett-gets-in-bonkers-hydroxychloroquine-fight-with-peter-navarro/

the link should tell you pretty much all you need to know, but it's worth a watch.

 

Navarro just said that people taking hydroxy under a physician’s supervision will not die from COVID or the drug. Like, full stop.

And then stated that if we don’t use it, it’s tantamount to the manslaughter of 1,000’s of people.

Holy shit.

This won’t get much coverage because there are no rules anymore, but HOLY SHIT.

4 hours ago, washparkhorn said:

good for erin. 

Bad for us.

Best people, indeed.

Edited by Dnaguy
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troph

troph 24787

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The crap in this thread makes me very very angry. But so glad that I’m not a moran. Talked to a bestie and she informed me I’m the only one she knows that has pulled her kids out of public school and opted for private remote learning. I mean good for me yay, but WTF?! Everyone apparently wants in person schooling.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5949

Posted
Posted
On 8/4/2020 at 8:09 PM, Bama Chick said:

If a place like CSU is behaving this way, imagine what players at big time schools in red states will face.

 

 


This is all going to be terrible.

 

Hopefully, they stick to just playing each other.  Hopefully the states of Kansas and Iowa are taking this threat more seriously. Add Gundy to this list. 

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Michael Knight

Michael Knight 12977

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Quote

 

The Unraveling of America  

Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era

 

Quote

 

In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

For the first time, the international community felt compelled to send disaster relief to Washington. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.” As American doctors and nurses eagerly awaited emergency airlifts of basic supplies from China, the hinge of history opened to the Asian century.

 

 

Quote

COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand.

 

Quote

Odious as he may be, Trump is less the cause of America’s decline than a product of its descent. As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country. The republic that defined the free flow of information as the life blood of democracy, today ranks 45th among nations when it comes to press freedom. In a land that once welcomed the huddled masses of the world, more people today favor building a wall along the southern border than supporting health care and protection for the undocumented mothers and children arriving in desperation at its doors. In a complete abandonment of the collective good, U.S. laws define freedom as an individual’s inalienable right to own a personal arsenal of weaponry, a natural entitlement that trumps even the safety of children; in the past decade alone 346 American students and teachers have been shot on school grounds.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/

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